The scenario in round one has to do with me making one of two choices that determines whether I live or die. I have been chosen to go on a very vital mission that happens to take place on Mars. Painfully, I have no power of choice in deciding whether to go on this mission or not. It is a must for me to go on this mission. The only thing I can do before embarking on this mission is to choose my means of transportation to Mars. I have two options, the first way I can get to Mars is through the use of tele transportation and the second means of transport is space travel. If I decide to go through the use of tele transportation, I have to step into a scanner on earth that will destroy my brain and body and at the same time, this scanner will record the exact state of all my cells. Once this is done, the recorded state of all my cells will be transferred to a replicator on Mars which will take exactly 3 minutes to arrive and then concoct a brain and body that looks exactly like mine using new materials.
The newly created person on Mars will look exactly like me, act like me, think like me etc. This person will feel as if he or she fell asleep on earth and then woke up all of a sudden on Mars. Going to Mars through this means is 100 per cent safe. Going to Mars using space travel is my second choice but it is a very risky choice and there is only a 50 per cent chance that the spacecraft will not complete the journey and I’ll end up dying in the process. The only good thing about this option is that, my body and brain won’t be destroyed if I decide to choose this option. The option that I thought would give me the biggest chance of surviving was taking a chance with the spacecraft even though there is only a 50 per cent chance of survival which I think is better than having my body and brain destroyed.
The scenario in round two, the spacecraft arrived safely on Mars. Getting to Mars, I discovered that two viruses have evolved on the planet which are causing so many problems. The first virus destroys body parts but fortunately for us all, medical science has become very advanced which has led to so many people being able to receive artificial limbs, organs etc. I have also been affected by this virus and almost my entire body is now made of artificial parts. Also, the second virus affects the brain. What this virus does is this, it destroys the neutral pathways which leads to a loss of memory and a change in an individual’s personality.
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Unfortunately for me, I have also caught this virus, but medics believe that they can get around this virus by replacing pieces of the brain with advanced forms of silicon chip. In my case, they will have to do this to almost all my brain, but trials show that I can be sure that the result will be the total preservation of my memories, desires, beliefs etc. The only other option that I have is to allow the virus to damage my brain and lose my memory. The option that I thought would give me the biggest chance of surviving was taking the silicon. This option gives me every chance of surviving, everything about me can be preserved. It’s the best option compared to allowing the virus to damage everything about me.
The scenario in round three, it was discovered that reincarnation occurs. There is a soul in human beings. When a person dies, the soul leaves the body and enters the body of a new born human. The soul does not take memory with it because if it did, we would have known if this was true. It is believed that it may have some effect in knowing one’s character. Much stranger than reincarnation is the very fact that our souls die after been stored at below freezing point for more than a week. All these facts are important to the last choice I must make because of how ill I have become. Scientists have been able to find a cure for the disease that I have and have also been able to develop a technique to deep freeze humans which allows them to be revived later with all their memories complete.
I have two difficult choices to choose from. The first choice is to let the disease get total hold of me and do its worst. By allowing this, my body will die but my soul will live on. The second choice is to be deep frozen and then cured later. If I choose this option, it will destroy my soul and this option only has a thirty per cent chance of being successful which means that, there is a 70 per cent chance that this option won’t work. I decided to let my body die knowing fully well that my soul would live on instead of being allowed to be deep frozen and then cured later which might not be successful in the long run. That would mean that both my body and soul would die.
According to the website, I survived. It was stated in the result that, “your choices are just about consistent with the view that the continuity of the soul is essential for personal survival. Your first choice showed a desire to keep your physical body alive. Your second choice, in contrast, showed a willingness to have your body replaced by synthetic parts to preserve your psychological continuity. Your last choice showed a willingness to jettison your physical body and end psychological continuity to save your soul”. I totally agree with the website’s assessment, the choices were difficult to make but I don’t think that, there are inconsistencies about my views on personal identity because this experiment was all about doing everything possible to survive and I made choices that I felt would enable me to survive which I was able to achieve at the end of the experiment.
